I stumbled upon this article on hometohome.co.uk about traditional white bathrooms, and it reminded me that some of the very best bathrooms are incredibly simple, with a white suite and light walls and window dressings.

Whether you want to go for a roll top bath, or a built-in suite, if you’ve got a relatively small room in which to create your dream bathroom, then choosing white is often the very best option.

But how can you make sure it’s not boring. After all, a plain white room with no quirkiness or style isn’t going to make it into the pages of an interiors magazine.

Some clever ideas that will make all-white work really well include:

Inspirational white bathroom design from housetohome.co.uk

Adding drama

You’ll be amazed the impact an oversized ornate mirror can have in an all-white scheme. As you’ll see in this brilliant photo from housetohome.co.uk, placing candles in front of the mirror can make the whole room seem very grand indeed.

Adding texture

You could think about cladding the walls in tongue and groove, or pick tiles that have an interesting surface rather than the standard glossy smooth. Fabrics and textiles can also add texture – perhaps choose curtains with a self-stripe, or bath mats and towels with waffle or ridged textures.

Light the space well

Highlight the most attractive features of the room – whether that’s interesting architecture, or a particularly amazing bath. This will help draw the eye to the best bits and break up the monotony on the white.

Newlands floor-standing bathroom sink counter top from BathEmpire

Avoid clutter

For all white to work well, the mess has to be hidden. Install some bathroom cabinets like these sleek ones from BathEmpire, and make sure the only things that are on display are beautiful and white – or at least pastel shades. Display them on a glass shelf  if possible.

Make it ridiculously glamorous

All-white rooms an synonymous with glamour, so make sure you take the concept all the way. We’re thinking a chandelier, clear glass mosaic tiles on the walls, marble floor… the whole celebrity treatment!

Hopefully this post has inspired you to see all-white bathrooms in a new light.

The starting point is choosing a bath with wow-factor.

Choose a gorgeous free-standing bath – either a roll-top or a more modern, simple shape –and position it in the middle of the bathroom. If you like you can even tile the floor in a different colour tile underneath the bath, or embed spotlights in the floor around the bath.

If space is a little too tight to put the bath in the middle of the room then put it against a wall and tile the wall behind the bath in a different type of tile from the ones being used in the rest of the room. For a luxurious look you could go for iridescent or metallic tiles  – so it looks like the bath is a cherished item that needs to be ‘framed’.

Iridescent can very effectively make a bath look special

We love the way this bath has been set back from the bathroom and the space edged with this fabulous metallic tile from Villeroy & Boch, for example.

Putting your bath on a pedestal is also an effective way to showcase it. This works really well if you have a recess to put the bath in, having it elevated will draw the eye to the bath and when you’re bathing in it, you’ll feel pretty special. Tile or clad the side of the bath in quality treated wood to finish the look.

Wherever you’re positioning your bath in the room, you can use lighting to make the bath the centre of attention – you could consider embedding spotlights in the ceiling, or hanging a bathroom-safe chandelier over the bath which will draw the eye to that area of the room.

Ball foot bath in black from BathEmpire

A final idea is simply to choose a stunning bath that is naturally going to steal all the attention in the bathroom – for example, a vintage-style roll-top bath with a beautiful black tub on white claw feet, just like the one we sell at BathEmpire. This bath would make a real statement in an all-white bathroom.

The interiors experts know the colour secrets, but we can let you in on them so you’ll be able to achieve a result that’s just as professional looking yourself.

The colour wheel with lighter shades of each colour

So, going right back to the beginning, you need to know that there are primary, secondary and tertiary colours.

The primary colours are red, blue and yellow – they’re the purest colours in that they cannot be made from any other colour.

Mix together equal amounts of any two of the primary colours and you end up with the secondary colours: purple, green and orange. Red and yellow make orange, red and blue make purple and blue and yellow make green.

Finally, the tertiary colours. These are made by mixing a primary with a secondary – for instance, mix blue with green and you get turquoise.

Now that you know the roots of the colours, you need to know how to combine them. The colour wheel comes in very handy for explaining this.

If you look at a colour wheel you’ll see all 12 of the primary, secondary and tertiary hues and it will become clearer how they relate to each other.

More complex colour wheels will also show different densities of each colour, which can de useful, as colours of the same density often work best together.

So, how to combine the colours…

Go for perfect harmony

Colours that sit right next to each other, or close to each other, on the wheel are known as harmonious.

For example: purple, lilac and blue used together make for a harmonious colour scheme. To get this look just right, it’s best to choose colours of similar densities for a balanced look so neither overpowers the other.

If you include a primary colour in the mix then the overall effect will be all the more striking – for example pairing red with hot pink.

Tone up

Even more limited, but equally impressive are tonal schemes or monochromatic scheme means you use just one colour but in varying tones.

An example would be to go for a bright yellow, a lemon and a yellow-tinted cream.

To stop this kind of scheme looking boring, you can use texture and pattern, either on walls or on soft furnishings like blinds and towels.

A tip, which interior designers tend to stick to, is to use the deepest of the shades nearest the floor and the lightest on the ceiling – this helps to give an illusion of space.

Go complementary

Complementary colours are ones that are opposite to one another on the colour wheel, and for some reason perfectly balance each other.

Even in nature, these colours are often found paired with each other in objects we consider to be beautiful – the purple and yellow of an iris, or the red and green of a holly branch, for example.. These colours are naturally made to ‘go’ with one another – think of the red and green of an apple, or the purple and yellow of an iris.

Complimentary schemes are usually more dramatic than harmonious schemes, and can take some care to make sure they work – choose the wrong tones of a colour and you can create a messy look.

Interior designers will often combine a complementary scheme with harmonious or tonal scheme, so they may team navy and pale blue with yellow and lemon, for example.

Yellow and red would make a cool combination in a bathroom

Clashing colours

To use clashing colours scares some people, but as long as they’re used carefully, then they can look bold and fabulously fashionable.

The key is to choose colours that are of equal tonal strength – if one is pastel and one is vibrant then you’ll end up with a bathroom that looks rather a mess.

A little light relief

When you’re thinking about your colour scheme don’t forget neutrals!

You won’t find them on the colour wheel, but they can be really useful in giving a colour scheme some ‘breathing space’ and making the strong colours you have chosen look even better together.

Opt for black, grey, stone, cream, white or anything else that doesn’t have any discernible colour.

They go together and will look good with most colours you choose (which make them good for ‘basics’ such as your bathroom suite and wall and floor tiles – if you change your mind about the colour scheme in a few years then the neutrals can stay!

That’s it, we hope you’re feeling more confident about decorating your bathroom now. Good luck with creating a beautiful colour scheme.

But what makes a house a home?

Storage from BathEmpire

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I’ve just moved in to a new property and am struggling to make it feel like my home.

In particular I don’t feel at home in the bathroom I have at the moment – the bath isn’t comfortable, and the whole room is a bit cold and unwelcoming – and because I’m just renting, I can’t install a new one, as much as I’d love to.

I’m dreaming of having a gorgeous white roll top bath and enormous walk-in shower. I think if I could have a bathroom like that then this place would certainly feel more like home.

When it comes to the bathroom, the things that make it feel like your own seem to be:

1. Great storage and work surfaces so there’s somewhere to put all your belongings, and everything’s right at hand, just where you expect it to be.

Constance freestanding bath from BathEmpire

2. A comfortable, clean bath that’s positioned well so you can get in and out easily and can totally relax while you’re taking a soak (so that means no mildew on the grouting and no dripping taps!)

3. A spacious, powerful shower – with places to put your bottles while you’re washing.

4. A clean, efficient toilet that flushes well and looks good.

5. Attractive décor – nothing too ‘corporate’ or faceless, but nothing too loud either.

6. A warm reception. Draughts are definitely not welcoming, a cosy bathroom is essential and towel radiators are the perfect finishing touch.

It’s pretty easy to get all of these things right if you’re installing a new bathroom in your house or flat, so take some time to really get it right.

After all, as much as people talk about the kitchen or the living room being the heart of the home, if you think about the place you go to relax, have privacy and just ‘be’ then the bathroom comes top of the list, so it’s really important that you make this room feel like your own.

But what about the wow-factor? What’s the ultimate dream bathroom that would leave you lost for words.

For some of us, a girlie bathroom, with luxury fittings, pinks and shimmering silvers is something that will really appeal to our feminine side.

Of course, it wouldn’t appeal to everyone – it’s the opposite of a Yorkie bar: it’s not for boys!

Roll-top bath fit for a princess

But if you’re a fairytale princess at heart, or just want to create one space in your home that’s all about unashamed prettiness and romance, then this could be the scheme for you.

So where to begin?

As with most bathrooms, start with the bath. It’s got to be a roll-top – ideally an old-fashioned and rather ornate one that’s fit for bathing in at length, not just taking a ‘quick dip’.

The shower should be as concealed as possible – perhaps go for a wet-room style with just a single sheet of glass (see below right) as lots of chrome or plastic doesn’t fit with this rather traditional scheme.

Wet room-style shower

The added extras in the room should be ornate – choose items that you’d normally have in a bedroom like a mirror with scalloped edges, a French-style cabinet, perhaps, and even a plush upholstered armchair if you have space.

Every princess needs space to hang her ball gowns and somewhere to put her precious lotions and potions when she’s getting ready, so set aside an area of the bathroom as a changing area complete with hooks and a dressing table or beauty cabinet.

As for colour scheme, well it’s got to be pink, of course.

Towels should be the highest quality you can buy and palest pink or white.

Bathroom chandelier from Gustavian

You can glam it up with a touch of sparkle – a chandelier would look amazing as long as you choose one that won’t rust in the humid atmosphere.

Stripped light wood flooring would complement the pale pink colour scheme, or you could create a castle atmosphere by using stone flooring – but make sure there are bathmats as princesses shouldn’t get their toes cold.

Most of us want our showers to be powerful, piping hot (or at least nice and warm when you wake up in the mornings. But do you want your shower over your bath or in a cubicle, and how do you want to heat the water – from your boiler, or using electricity?

There are so many different types of shower to choose from that it can be difficult to know what to opt for.
That’s why we’ve put together this handy guide to the different types of shower available – hopefully it’ll make your choice a little easier.

Over bath
The simple shower solution is to simply install a riser rail and have a shower hose leading up from your bath taps.

The temperature of the water will be dictated by how much hot water you have in your boiler (just like it is with a bath) and the pressure will be the same as that produced by your bath taps.

This tends to be an inexpensive option and can even be fitted retrospectively once you’ve had a bath installed – you’ll just need to change the taps.

Another option is to choose an electric shower positioned over the bath. In this case both the pressure and the temperature of the shower will be dictated by the electric unit you have installed.

Thermostatic shower controls

Stand alone cubicle

In smaller bathrooms, many people will say that opting for a roomy shower cubicle is better than trying to squeeze in a small bath – the shower will feel luxurious whereas the bath will feel cramped.

You’ll need a shower tray, a cubicle, a thermostatic control, riser rail and shower head. The area will have to be tiled and sealed to prevent damage to the bathroom.

If you have enough room though, you might be able to have both a bath and a shower.

Create a wetroom in your bathroom

Wet room
A wet room is actually a great idea if you have a lack of space as the shower needs no containing – just let the water go everywhere.

You won’t need a shower tray, but you’ll have to get the area around the shower and the floor tiled, and make sure there’s adequate drainage so you don’t get any build-ups of water.

Installing a wet room can be a tricky job so you could enlist the help of a specialist bathroom designer, or even an architect, as they will make sure the waterproofing of the room is effective.

Electric showers
Whether you’re installing your shower over your bath or in a stand-alone cubicle, one option is to have an electric shower.

They come in a variety of styles, but usually involve a control box which needs to be attached to the wall.

They draw on the cold water supply only and heat the water instantly on demand, which makes them very energy efficient (there’s no hot water wastage).

Bath mixer tap with shower attachment

Mixer showers
These draw from both hot and cold water supplies and usually deliver higher flow rates, depending on where you locate the shower in your home.

Mixer showers are a great solution for homes with readily available hot water (perhaps from a combi boiler or large capacity hot water cylinder).

In the simplest of these shower designs, the shower won’t have any electrical element itself – it will simply mix the hot and cold water together and then deliver it through the shower head.

If you want to create extra ‘oomph’ with this type of shower, then you could add an integrated pump to boost the flow rate – which will help if your system has low pressure.

We hope this guide to showers has been useful. Just give us a call if you need more advice.

Interior designers have ‘tricks of the trade’ that can make any room look better – including the bathroom.

I’ve been trawling the internet to find all the advice I can, and these seven tips are the most interesting and relevant if you’re renovating your bathroom.

1. Plan the space

Good rooms don’t just happen accidentally. If you want your bathroom to function well and look great, you need to plan it out.

Measure the space, draw it to scale on some graph paper and then plan where you’ll position your bath, showers, toilet and sink.

Make sure you get measurements from the manufacturers so you can make an accurate plan.

You want to make sure that there’s enough space between fixed items so you can move around properly, and check that you’re not preventing yourself from opening the door properly, for instance.

And as interior designer Nina Campbell explains here, it’s better if you aren’t confronted with the loo as soon as you walk in!

2. Go for luxury

There’s one thing that interior designers know how to do very well, and that’s create a luxurious environment.

Sometimes it’s just little things that make all the difference.

For example, Kirstie Allsop, when she was decorating Meadowgate, her country property, positioned an armchair in the bathroom. This is such a nice touch if you have the space – it really makes the room seem like a luxurious pampering space.

Matano back to wall toilet from BathEmpire

3. Hide the technology

If you’ve ever looked around a show home, you’ll notice that there are no trailing power cables or unsightly adapter sockets anywhere – all the technology is hidden away.

The same can apply in the bathroom.

Choose pieces that have concealed pipework so the bathroom takes on a streamlined look. At BathEmpire, for example, there are toilets with concealed cisterns and built—in baths.

Even sinks can be neatly positioned within cabinets so the underneath isn’t visible and storage is maximised.

4. Choose the unusual

Interior designers manage to go beyond the bare minimum of creating a safe but boring interior scheme – they tend to add quirky and individual touches that show character and creativity.

One way to do this is to use wallpaper in your bathroom.

People tend to be concerned that wallpaper won’t work in a bathroom because it’s a damp environment, but wallpapers can actually be pretty tough.

Mae bathroom wallpaper from Graham & Brown

Obviously, make sure you protect areas that are likely to get really wet – using tile splash-backs around the shower and sink, but other than that wallpaper should be fine.

These days many suppliers have realised that home owners want to use wallpaper in their bathrooms, so they’ve created ones with waterproof coating that won’t be ruined by damp or steam from the shower. Take a look at this range on Graham & Brown, for example.

5. Colour it pretty

Colour co-ordination is easy in bathrooms as there are towels, bathmats and blinds available in all the colours you can imagine.

For an interior designer twist, don’t choose an obvious colour combination – you could go for red and orange, for example to give a hot, Moroccan look, or you could keep it cool and contemporary with lime green and grey.

6. Frame the best bits

Interior designers know to shine a spotlight, metaphorically (or literally!) on the most attractive aspects of a room.

If you’ve bought a gorgeous roll-top bath, for example, then showcase it by having an accent wall of coloured tiles or even wallpaper, behind it.

If the architecture is gorgeous, use up-lighters to direct the eye towards the period features.

Stainless steel mirror cabinet, BathEmpire

7. Tromp l’oeil

…or trick the eye.

A classic trick of the interior designer is to use mirrors to make spaces appear bigger than they actually are.

It’s now easier than ever to do this in a bathroom. Not only can you fix a huge mirror to the wall, you can buy mirrored furniture – which we stock at BathEmpire – to reflect the room, and hence make it appear bigger.

It’s always nice to fill your home with pieces that evoke memories, and the bathroom is no exception – you can buy a bathroom suite, wallpaper, tiles, flooring and free-standing furniture that has a retro or vintage vibe.

The key, as ever, is not to go over the top. You don’t want your bathroom to look exactly like one from the 1950s or 1900s – just retain some elements and combine them with modern design and technology.

Remember that when it comes to retro, a little goes a long way. If you’re fitting retro-inspired lino on the floor, make sure the rest of the bathroom is fairly cutting edge.

And if you’re going for a Victorian-look roll-top bath then teaming it with modern striped blind and plain brightly coloured walls can look better than creating an entirely mock-Victorian room.

The best advice, which I talk about time and time again on this blog, is to play it fairly safe with the big ticket items such as the bathroom suite.

The Ropar bath from BathEmpire has 60s-style curves

You can opt for funky retro shape free-standing baths or beautiful roll-top tubs, but always choose white so you can change the look with paint effects or new soft furnishings whenever you like.

Freestanding baths with curvy shapes evoke the mid decades of the 20th century. Groovy baby.

Often giving the room a retro or vintage look is simply about choosing the right shapes. The 60s was all about big bold curves, while the Victorian era is more about scrolls and more subtle curves (see my previous blog post on vintage bathrooms). The 70s look is more hard-edged and geometric.

Just bearing this in mind when shopping for your bathroom can help you create the atmosphere you want.

The Victoria traditional towel radiator from BathEmpire

As well as general shapes, think about incorporating pieces that are replicas of traditional pieces from the past. An old fashioned towel radiator, for example, can look very chic in a modern bathroom.

Once you have a white suite in place you can go to town with colour. Think of hues which would have been used in your home when you were a child, or take a look in any DIY store and you’ll see vintage paint ranges.

Orange, yellow and pastel shades, if used correctly are great for evoking previous decades. (For inspiration see my previous blog post on jewel tone bathrooms).

If you’re on a budget then opting for a vintage or retro feel bathroom is a great idea as you can mix in pieces you find at second hand or vintage shops, or on ebay, and you can even scour your own attic for items to put in the room.

We love this funky retro bathroom as feature on redonline.co.uk

A funky twist is to use furniture that wouldn’t traditionally have been found in a bathroom.

For example, we love if you click on the retro bathrooms feature at redonline.co.uk, you’ll spot a bathroom where a vintage office filing cabinet has been spray-painted to give it a new lease of life. We think it creates a fab look.

I hope this post has inspired you to create your own vintage or retro-look bathroom, and made you realise that having a little bit of the past in your bedroom doesn’t mean you have to install an avocado suite!

I like to think I’m somebody who can see past cosmetic flaws and see the potential in a house or flat, but increasingly I think that it’s actually very hard not to be seduced by a property that’s ‘done’.

A new bathroom could clinch a sale

In particular I’m finding myself drawn to properties which have beautifully decorated bathrooms – often ones with on-trend roll-top baths and separate shower cubicles.

The places with small bathrooms crammed with dated bathroom suites are not appealing to me at all.

Now I’m someone who loves a bit of redecoration, and I certainly wouldn’t flinch at the idea of putting in a new bathroom.

So why am I still more likely to buy the property with the newly installed, attractive bathroom?

I think that the reason may be that I know there’ll be a sense of guilt if I go in and rip out a functional yet slightly old-fashioned or ugly bathroom in the property I buy. I don’t have money to burn.

I’ll feel that I should ‘make-do’ for a few years at least and will have to live with a rubbish bathroom.

If I buy the house with the great bathroom then it’s all done for me, I can’t decide to be frugal!

I think many other buyers must also have the same inclination, but perhaps for different reasons.

Certainly some buyers will be put off by the thought of all the upheaval involved in having a new bathroom fitted, so they’ll go for the property where the sellers have done all the hard work for them.

Others are simply unable to see past a bad bathroom suite and will think that the bathroom is intrinsically ugly, small or badly laid-out.

The moral of this story, if you’re a home-owner looking to sell, has to be that installing a new modern bathroom suite will make your property appeal to more buyers and may even clinch that sale for you.

Phil Spencer (of Location, Location, Location fame) agrees with me. On the Telegraph website he says that a new bathroom will add 2.88% to the value of your home – which could be far more than you have to pay to have the bathroom fitted. You can read his ideas here.

We’d love to know what you think? Are you also drawn to properties with great bathrooms, or would you only buy a renovation product and source the bathroom yourself?

Whether you live near the coast yourself or not, this is your chance to bring a little seaside living into your home.

The Richmond Pearl Roman blind from Hillarys

The most traditional take on the look is a colour scheme of sand and pale blue with lots of natural materials and perhaps a shell print or two.

You can bring this up to date with the us of lots of natural materials, perhaps rattan baskets or natural jute containers.

The key is not to go for anything too tacky – this should be seaside chic as you’d find in Pembrokeshire or Cornwall, not like kiss-me-quick resorts!

To achieve this natural look, opt for pale cream or sand coloured towels and blinds and a stone- effect tile or even white-washed boards on the floor.

There are lots of variations on the theme which you may prefer though.

For example, if your style is more formal and less relaxed, you might like the neatness and order of a nautical theme, complete with navy and white striped blinds, crisp white towels and accents of red or gold provided by accessories.

Another great option is to make this a fun, child-like scheme. you could have a bright boats pattern on your blinds or shower curtain and prints of buckets and spades in primary colours framed on the walls.

Beach hut hooks from Dorset Gifts

The Nyos free-standing bath from BathEmpire

Whichever style of coastal or nautical look you’re going for, a white bathroom suite is the best starting point. It’s crisp and clean, and will still look great if you decide to change your theme in years to come.

Some free-standing baths have a boat-like shape which can really enhance the look.

Just add a scented candle that evokes memories of the ocean and you can lie back in the tub and imagine you’re somewhere altogether more exotic.